Summary: To Sell Is Human

Review and Analysis of Pink's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782511024362
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Sales
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of Daniel Pink's book: `To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Persuading, Convincing and Influencing Others`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Daniel Pink's book `To Sell is Human` explains how we sell to people every single day, whether we know it or not, by persuading others to do things. The author shows how you can improve your skills of persuasion to gets other to adapt to your way of thinking using a set of tools and tips. This book includes different ways of offering your idea, listening to others and making your message clear to help you perfect your approach.

Added-value of this summary: 
• Save time 
• Understand the key concepts 
• Increase your skills of persuasion

To learn more, read `To Sell is Human` and discover the science behind selling to develop one of the most useful skills available.

Summary of To Sell Is Human (Daniel Pink)

1. The Death and Rebirth of a Salesman

Conventional wisdom suggested the Internet would bring about the end of intermediaries like salespeople. What has come about is pretty much the opposite of that, thanks to three main drivers:

1. Technology has lowered entry barriers thereby fueling a surge of entrepreneurship.
2. Instead of doing one thing, most jobs now stretch across multiple boundaries.
3. The fast-growth industries are education and health care – jobs which move people.

Fortunately, while more of us are in sales, the nature of sales itself has changed dramatically. Instead of being about deception and hustle, today’s sales success is based on honesty, fairness and transparency. The era of “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) has been superceded by an era of caveat venditor (seller beware).

According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, about 1 in every 9 American workers works in sales. That means the United States has far more salespeople than factory workers or put another way America’s sales force outnumbers the federal government’s workforce by more than 5 to 1. And what holds true for America is also true for the rest of the world as well. In Australia, Canada, Japan and across the European Union, about 1 in 10 people classify themselves as being in sales.

That is, however, just the tip of the iceberg. When Gallup ran a poll asking people what they actually did at work, they came up with two startling conclusions:

This is interesting because none of this moving people to do things shows up in the traditional sales metrics. It suggests that “non-sales selling” – selling that doesn’t involve anyone making a purchase – now occupies a large chunk of the average work day for almost every worker. In other words, you might not necessarily know it and acknowledge it but when you look at what you’re doing most of the time, you’re trying to move people to do things – you’re in sales.

So how did that come about? Well, it’s really the natural and logical result of three trends which have already worked their way through the economy:

1. Entrepreneurship – With the rise of outsourcing and the lowering of entry barriers in almost every industry thanks to the Internet, more and more people have taken the plunge and gone into business for themselves. The American economy now has more than 21 million people who are self-employed and it is estimated by 2015, more than 1.3 billion people worldwide will work for themselves rather than for a corporation. This reaches right across the spectrum from electricians to computer consultants, graphic designers, freelancers, consultants and so on. Some analysts believe the majority of the American workforce could be self-employed by 2020. And anyone who is in business for themselves will attest part of their job description is to generate their own sales. It’s the very key to sustainability.
2. Elasticity – Even those who are still employed will be quick to admit the volatile business conditions of today demand that they have more elastic skill sets than before. Established companies now require their workers to have much broader skill sets. Computer programmers get out in the field and find out what customers want rather than sitting in the office coding. Designers analyze markets. Accountants come up with ideas for new products and so forth. And in almost every case where job descriptions get stretched across functional boundaries, some degree of learning how to move others is involved. In other words, everyone is adding selling to their other duties.
3. Ed-Med – As baby boomers age, the fastest-growing sector in the economy is Ed-Med – education and health services. Over the past decade, Ed-Med has generated more new jobs in the United States and worldwide than all other sectors combined. The mission statement which lies at the heart of the Ed-Med juggernaut is “moving people” – or in other words, selling. Educators convince their students that if they will commit time, attention and effort, they will be better off in the end. Similarly, health care providers are in the business of convincing people they should commit personal resources like time, energy, effort and money to getting healthier. The central mission of educators and health care professionals alike is to move people – a form of non-sales selling.

“Health care and education both revolve around non-sales selling: the ability to influence, to persuade, and to change behavior while striking a balance between what others ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of To Sell Is Human (Daniel Pink)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright